– repeating 1st year for like the n-th time. Well lets just say my friends are going to 3rd year, I am still in first year. Oh yeah, I got kicked out of university as well

– nothing achieved. No black belt, no ARCT in piano, no olympic level sports under my belt. None. Not even a record in some damn game

– not much of a social circle. Just a few close friends here and there, though not at the level of being a permanent resident behind the monitor type

Now, the whole reason wasn’t to let readers pity my status. Everyone has dreams – I have them too. The point is to transform myself into a test experiment to undergo an intensive improvement process, and track how I am going to do it.

Here are some goals (now, everyone needs goals, they have to be SOLID, within reasonable LIMITS, and able to be accomplished within a short time frame, say less than 5 years):

– get back into university and graduate with a stellar GPA

– get my ARCT in piano

– win something (this is vague, I know) in a badminton tournament, if not better

– under 25 seconds average for the Rubik’s cube (in case you think this is some feat, its not; I am currently at 35-37 seconds)

– speak fluent Japanese, possibly go to Japan for an exchange or co-op term

– obtain a decent knowledge of the stock market and in investing

– gain self-discipline, effective studying habits

– become a decent singer, gain recognition online (hate to say it, but YouTube would be the definition of “online” for now)

There are also a ton of other small goals, such as own in an online game, get a nice car, get a girlfriend… but honestly those are as naive as they are unrealistic and worthless. I’m sort of past that age now.

Now onto something less abstract. How am I going to accomplish this:

Digging the gold

I am not talking about earning money. Digging the gold, to me, means to find the best learning resource and method for a specific interest or activity that you are commited to. Some people learn faster than others, but not necessarily because they were born more gifted, rather they know what to look for.

Now of course, the most important thing is to find the gold. Here are some that I’ve found so far, and will feature in my blog continually:

Diigo is a tool that lets you make bookmarked websites more worthwhile, especially if you have a social circle or friends that use it. You can most importantly highlight excerpts in a bookmarked website.

Anki is a spaced repetition program. Think flashcards, but used in a way where if you review everyday, you won’t forget anything. Basically put, it is brute forced memorization in a more intelligent way.